There is some kind of crazy voodoo going on between the show's ratings, its slot on Fridays, and the obvious fact that Kevin Reilly at Fox loves it. It got an early renewal last year while averaging a 1.5 in the 18-49 demo, and there were press releases saying the network was happy if they kept that. This year, they've been averaging a 1.3, and last week pulled a 1.2, none of which looks good, especially because this season will put it over the 80 episodes needed for syndication deals. On the other hand, everything else Fox has had in its timeslot for the past few years has done even worse, so...maybe they'll keep it there if it can stay over 1.0? There's also been some talk from the network that with ratings monsters like Glee and American Idol, they can afford to keep some low-rated but critically-acclaimed shows around to add quality to their brand. And the DVR numbers are insanely good--they more than double the amount of people watching the show live. These don't count for ad money--yet--but Reilly seems big into getting them to count, so he may be thinking of Fringe as Exhibit A in his case.
So I don't have my hopes up, but I didn't have them up last year and got an incredibly pleasant surprise, so maybe this year will be the same!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-10-18 07:49 pm (UTC)So I don't have my hopes up, but I didn't have them up last year and got an incredibly pleasant surprise, so maybe this year will be the same!